Forgive me if this is a really dumb question... does an XL1200R, 2006 have a fuel warning light? If so, what sort of miles covered would you expect it to come on at - all town riding?

I ask cos my 2007 XL883L has a fuel light and it comes on at about a 3rd if tank left on general calculation. But my fella's 1200 doesn't ever have a light come on even though it's almost empty, but he's certain it has a fuel warning light. Would it be likely to fail??

Any help to clear up this mystery would be great. We're both very new to Harleys (can you tell? Lol)

 

I don't think 2006 and down have low fuel lights, they are carbed. Now 2007 and up are fuel injected and do have low fuel lights

 

Also '06 and down have a fuel reserve and '07 up dont

 

Yeh that's one thing we did find out (not the hard way thankfully) - I have no reserve where his does, plus the manual choke versus auto/electric choke on mine :-)

 

The reason you have a low fuel warning light instead of a reserve switch is that it is very bad for the fuel pump (and to a lesser extent, the fuel injectors) to run out of fuel. With your "fella's" bike, it has a carburetor, and carburetors are gravity fed from the tank so there is no worry about a fuel pump running in a dry state like yours. His "low fuel indicator" is when his bike sputters and dies and he has to switch the fuel valve to the reserve setting. If he has a 4.5 gal. tank then when that happens he should have about (or a little over) 1 gal. of fuel left. Not sure, if he has the 3.3 gal. tank. You, on the other hand, I believe have the 4.5 gal. tank for sure and should have about 1 1/2 gal. of fuel left in the tank when the light goes on.

 

It is right!